I have chosen to dig deeper into location 52-123 (I used a kindle edition so the page numbers are not listed but this is part of the first chapter). I have chosen to concentrate on the different names that come up throughout the section I have chosen. The start of the section I chose is when Lionel and Norma are beginning to discuss carpet samples and different colours. In Jane Flick’s work I did not see very much about Lionel and Norma however, one connection I made was to Norma Bates from Bates Motel. I do not know if this is an intended connection but it is one I made because it is a popular TV show that I enjoy.  As described in Jane Flick’s work, the Lone Ranger is a hero in a mask based off of a TV series and different books. In this part of Thomas King’s novel the Lone Ranger is talking about telling a story. I think that he was implemented into the story because in the TV series and movies he has an Indian side kick. Hawkeye is a similar character to Lone Ranger in the sense that the name was popularized in American culture. Another connection that I noticed that I am sure many other people did as well was the use of the cliche saying “one upon a time” and “A long time ago in a far away land”. I think the author chose to use these sayings to implement more popular culture into the novel, especially because companies such as Disney, Dream Works and Universal are so widely known. Another link I found within King’s novel is between Dr.Joseph Hovaugh and Mary. These two characters have a conversation towards the end of the section I chose. I do not think that this would be a coincidence. I think that King chose these two characters to have a conversation because of the story of Jesus’s birth with his parents Mary and Joseph, who were selected by the Christian God to raise his son.

Over all I found this book to be filled with different characters that can be related to different outside sources. I think that King did this to give the novel some more depth and to make pieces of a modern day Indigenous story have relatable aspects for the average reader.

Works Cited:

“Bates Motel.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 18 Mar. 2013, www.imdb.com/title/tt2188671/.

Flick, Jane. “Reading Notes for Thomas King’s Green Grass Running Water.” Canadian Literature 161-162. (1999). Web. April 04/2013.

JPC-DESIGN, whychristmas?com /. “The Christmas Story – An Angel Visits Mary.” The History of The Christmas Story — Whychristmas?Com, www.whychristmas.com/story/angel_mary.shtml.

King, Thomas. Green Grass Running Water. Toronto: Harper Collins, 1993.

I think that King uses a mapping metaphor to shed light on different paths and views of life. By this I mean that throughout the novel Lionel, Charlie and Alberta are searching for meaning in their life and relationships. Mapping can be seen as a very western world thing to do which I believe is used in King’s novel to show the differences between Aboriginal people in a modern world where customs and traditions are harder to keep alive. One thing that is really apparent on maps are boarders. This can be related to the modern day view on Indigenous reserves. As someone who lives in a town that has bits and pieces of it being First Nations land (West Kelowna BC) you can usually tell which pieces are owned by the First Nations government and which are not. It is harder to tell when looking at land that is filled with businesses or home developments, however when you go right on to the Westbank First Nations (WFN) reserve it is really easy to tell. I say this because the homes are surrounded by a lot more natural vegetation. The trees are much bigger/fuller, the ground looks a lot more like a forest floor rather than manicured landscape and I say this will full admiration. I love seeing how the homes of Westbank First Nations people are full of West Kelowna’s natural beauty. (I love the forest and being out in nature so this is the type of “landscaping” I would love to have in my future backyard. I also think one of the biggest pieces of King’s map metaphor is the map of life and having to find your own path. I honestly believe that it is harder for younger generations of Indigenous people to find their path in life while sticking close to their heritage and customs. – I say this as someone who is in no way Aboriginal and have not experienced this first hand. From an outsider’s perspective and from hearing stories from my peers it seems as if it is hard to stick to traditions when there is so much pressure to conform to societal norms and what is “expected” of young people. I have seen this with my own heritage, as a very loose example from my life, German heritage is to pass down family recipes down generations and this is something I have tried to push for because my family does not really care about that anymore because any recipe can be found on the internet. To go back to King’s novel, I think that the centre of the mapping metaphor is self discovery and learning about where you want life to take you.

Works Cited:

“Discover WFN.” Westbank First Nation, www.wfn.ca/.]

“NativeLand.ca.” Native, native-land.ca/.

I have chosen to write on the Indian Act of 1876. The Indian Act is a Federal Law of Canada that governs matters regarding Indigenous people of Canada regarding status, Reserves and Bands. This Act has been seen as invasive and controversial  for as long as it has been around. It makes it so that the Canadian Federal Government can regulate day to day life of registered First Nations people, affairs, and reserve communities. The Indian Act was famous for its oppression of traditional Indigenous practices. One of the most famous examples of this is the Potlatch Law. In 1884 Potlatches were banned using the Indian Act. Potlatches were most important to the west coast bands. A Potlatch was seen as being ceremonial and a way to help spread wealth and good intentions to people in the Indigenous community.Other important ceremonies such as the Sun Dance were banned in following years under the Indian Act. The Indian Act has been through many revisions over time since it was originally brought into use in 1876. It was after World War Two that Canadian citizens really started to become more concerned and aware of what human rights are. In 1957 a revision to the Indian Act made it so that it was no longer illegal for Indigenous people to practice their cultural traditions and customs. This change also made it so that Indigenous people could go into pool halls and partake in gambling which prior to this was not allowed. Although, with these positive changes the consumption of alcohol by Indigenous people was still controlled by the government. The Canadian Government wanted to move away from making First Nations people look like wards of the state and stop some of the negative views associated with their culture. However by doing this the government wanted to facilitate ideas to help Indigenous people to become “contributing members” of Canadian society. I think that this was a very misleading objective of the Canadian Government as the Indigenous people make up a very large part of what Canada is. However I do understand that this was a old school view on First Nations people. The Indian Act continues to be one of the most controversial Acts of Canadian Government practices. The changes made since it was implemented have been beneficial but I do not think that the government will ever fully get rid of the Indian Act.

Works Cited:

“Indian Act.” The Canadian Encyclopedia, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/indian-act.

“The Indian Act.” Indigenousfoundations, indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/the_indian_act/.

Hello Professor,

These are the three blogs I have chosen to have evaluated for my md-term evaluations.

Assignment 2:2

Assignment 2:6

Assignment 2:4

Thanks!

The question I have chosen to answer is question 6:

“Harry Robinson’s account of literacy being stolen from Coyote by his white twin conform to all the standard criteria associated with a genre of Salish narratives commonly referred to by outsiders as legend or mythology with one exception – they appear to contain post-contact content” (Carlson 56)

Why is it, according to Carlson or/and Wickwire, that Aboriginal stories that are influenced or informed by post-contact European events and issues are “discarded to the dustbin of scholarly interest”? (56).

According to Carlson one of the reasons Aboriginal stories that are influenced by post-contact European events are discarded because people think that they lack authenticity. Many people associate authentic Aboriginal stories with pre-contact events and ways of life, and disregard the culture changes, and the stories that come with that after European settlers made contact with Aboriginal people in Canada. By doing this, it is said that people are closing the doors to more learning, and more information regarding Aboriginal people and their way of life. I think that one of the reasons people could see the post-contact stories as being “non-authentic” because they do not want to listen or realize some of the negative effects that European settlers had on Aboriginal morals, values and ways of life.

When looking at other stories associated with heritage, it is not common to come upon any that are deemed to be not scholarly because of settler contact. It is difficult to distinguish between what can be considered “myth” or “legend” as someone who does not have any relations to a culture that prides themselves in verbal stories. However, I do see that by having post-contact information that makes a story seem more believable and that it should be considered scholarly when looking at the impacts, and the ability the stores have to tell a different side of past events. Because Aboriginal people tell stories by mouth this should not impact their credibility in my opinion.There are many different cultures where stories and how they are told are what makes a culture and past events “stay Alive”, just because there is post contact material does not mean that the stories are any less accurate.

I can take myself and look at the other side of what Carlson and Wickwire are trying to get across. Works that are deemed scholarly need to have viable evidence to back up claims that are made. It is very hard to do this with regards to Aboriginal stories because many of them are just told by mouth and that is how they are passed down. This does leave a lot of room for human error in my opinion. It makes me think of the game “telephone” that I used to play as a kid, where someone is told one sentence and it gets told down a line of people and then the last person says out loud what they think the sentence was at the beginning. I understand that telling historical stories is not the same as a little game played by children however it does make me think about what could have changed over time with stories that are only passed down by mouth in the ways that different people talk and how other interpret them.

Works Cited:

“Is My Source Credible?” Is My Source Credible? – UMGC Library, sites.umgc.edu/library/libhow/credibility.cfm.

Buxton, Richard G.A., et al. “Myth.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 3 Jan. 2017, www.britannica.com/topic/myth.

In King’s novel The Truth about Stories King goes through two different creation stories. One about how God created Earth using words and how he put Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden where Eve eats the forbidden fruit. The other story is about Charm who falls down from the sky while pregnant with twins. She creates the world out of mud with help from a bunch of different animals from the water. I think that King creates dichotomies for us to examine these two creation stories because of how different the stories are and how widely known the “Genesis” story is. There is also a very big difference between both stories. The “Genesis” story has a lot to do with power and punishment whereas the story about Charm and the animals is about coming together to create something beautiful. I think that King emphasizes the believability of the “Earth diver” story over the genesis story to further show the difference in components that make up the stories. The “Earth diver” story is about diversity and coming together whereas the “Genesis” story is about one almighty being, this is is a great example and use of a dichotomy. I believe that King used a story telling voice when talking about Charm because it makes the story sound more magical even though it does not seem believable in my mind. I also think he did this because the story itself is more about collaboration which is more upbeat and lively. I think that King puts both stories into a tidy row to show us that even though people do not hear about the “Earth diver” story as often as we hear the story of the “Genesis” it does not mean that what is more popular is more right than what is not heard as often. I think King is trying to show us different perspectives and different ways to think about creation and how we became on his Earth.

Works Cited:

Creation Stories, www.gly.uga.edu/railsback/CS/CSSummation.html.

Hodge, Bodie. “Was the Forbidden Fruit an Apple?” Answers in Genesis, 29 June 2010, answersingenesis.org/adam-and-eve/was-the-forbidden-fruit-an-apple/.

I loved being able to read a bunch of blogs and gain a better understanding about other people in the class and what their sense of home is. I chose to do this assignment looking at Katarina, Georgia, Jacob, Grace and Emilia’s blogs and the way they feel about home. Some of the recurring themes that I noticed were:

• Home is not necessarily a place, building or city but the people that you surround yourself with that make you feel loved or “at home”.
• Home is a feeling inside yourself
• Somewhere on the surface but the love you feel underneath

Katarina, Grace and Emilia look at the places they have been/live at pieces of what home is to them. They look at their surroundings, smells, sounds and feelings associated with home and where they live but also look at the people that make home for them. Jacob is very different from the blogs that I read. He still associated home with a feeling rather than a place but his feeling is more about freedom. What makes him feel like home is the ability to roam which is what makes him happy.

All of the blogs that I read do have many things in common with what I think of when I think about home in my mind. They all look at feelings first when they stop and think about what makes home to them. I am the same way. When I think of home I think of the people that I love and the feelings I get when I am with these people. I do understand Jacob’s perspective when it comes to roaming and the feeling of freedom being a sense of home. I absolutely love traveling and everything about it, and like I mentioned in my blog post about home, one of the places i consider home is Orlando Florida where I travelled to and lived for almost four months. In addition to this trip I have been to Orlando seven separate times (because Disney is a feeling of home for me too!)

I loved being able to read a bunch of different people’s blogs about what makes home for them. I find it amazing how all of us live such different lives, and some of us are separated by larger distances and have never met yet we are still so connected in the ways we think of home.

Hello Everyone!

I found this assignment slightly challenging as my sense of home has changed significantly over the last year. I used to think of my home primarily as being West Kelowna. It is all I remember as I moved here from Airdrie Alberta when I was five and even when I go back not too much is familiar anymore. Since moving to BC I have only ever lived in West Kelowna (Or Westbank as it was called when I first moved here) however I have lived in six different homes in the 18 years I have been here. When I leave for a long time I always miss the mountains and the lake. The look of my surroundings and the feeling of being in my own bed. However, I lived in Orlando Florida for almost four months two summers ago and I now consider there a piece of my home and I always will. In the last year my feeling of home has dramatically changed. I have heard many people say that home isn’t a building, or a place it’s the people you are with and I really understand that now. I had my little boy a little over three months ago and I have just gotten engaged. My whole sense of home is different now. I don’t think of West Kelowna being my only sense of home, instead now its my family. This is not to say that my parents and siblings were not home to me before, because they most definitely were/are, but things are different now that I have a family of my own. I know that no matter where life takes me as long as I have my family by my side that everything is going to be ok. I have been told so many stories about how family affects the world around you through my parents. When my family moved from Alberta to British Columbia my parents left behind almost everyone they knew, including both of their parents and all of their siblings. My mom has told me so many times of how hard it was to leave the only place she knew, and how she remembers the look on my grandparents faces as they pulled out the driveway. At the time I understood how missing someone feels but I did not quite grasp the whole feeling. Since moving to BC both of my parents’ whole families have followed. I have both sets of grandparents in close driving distance, and both aunts and almost all cousins here. Turns out everyone else wanted to be close when they came to the realization that home isn’t home without the ones you love. Now that I have my son, and my soon to be hubby by my side everyday I could not imagine home without the both of them. My home is no longer a place or a building in my mind, it is now my little circle of love that I surround myself with. I love listening to people tell me about what home is to them, some people are so passionate about culture and what makes where they are from beautiful and I still understand that passion and that love for your hometown or country. I absolutely miss Canada when I travel and (almost) always miss it when I know a trip is over. But now I have realized that yes being home is amazing, and yes I love my country and yes I love my hometown, but my family will forever be my home no matter where I am.

I have a great story to tell you, It’s about how beauty was rediscovered in the world.

There once was a young lady named Rose, a very curious and adventurous girl. She liked to take long walks through the city and then venture off to the countryside where she did all of her best thinking. One day while passing through the city she stopped and noticed all of the busy streets, loud noises and crowds of people she did not know. She did not like to look at the city and found it rather disgusting to look at, so Rose continued her walk to the countryside. Once she got there, Rose picked a spot that looked nice and sat down. When she stopped and listened she could hear the birds, a frog in the distance and the subtle sound of a creek near by. Rose thought that living in the countryside would be the absolute best idea. So the next day she decided to try it out and spend one weekend not in the city. The first night was great, Rose felt as if she was coming back to where she was supposed to be. However by the second night she began to grow lonely. She tried talking to the trees and the animals however they could not talk back so the conversations did not last very long. She was awake almost all night wishing she could hear another human being. When the morning came she packed her things and went back to the city. On the way back home she noticed the little beautiful things about the city. She saw a mother hug her child, she saw a couple holding hands, a neighbour waving. She no longer saw the crowds of people as a negative, she learnt to see the beauty in her surroundings, and to appreciate what she has.

Reflection:

I liked being able to recreate the story/creation of evil in a different way. I chose to make the mind/thoughts the evil in the story to show that you can try to see the beauty around you. I chose to do this because the end of Thomas King’s writing that we read really stuck to me, where he explains how sometimes the way we think of creation determines our outlook on life. That idea really stuck with me and is what inspired my short story about finding the beauty within your surroundings.

Hello everybody!

For assignment 1:3 I have chosen to tackle question seven which is At the beginning of this lesson I pointed to the idea that technological advances in communication tools have been part of the impetus to rethink the divisive and hierarchical categorizing of literature and orality, and suggested that this is happening for a number of reasons.  I’d like you to consider two aspects of digital literature: 1) social media tools that enable widespread publication, without publishers, and 2) Hypertext, which is the name for the text that lies beyond the text you are reading, until you click. How do you think these capabilities might be impacting literature and story? 

With the continuing advances in technology has come a very large change in both orality and written literature. The internet is full of online platforms that give people the ability to express how they feel in a number of ways. This includes writing things such as blogs exactly like we are doing for this class. People also have the ability to publish literature without a an actual publisher ( I know someone who just got their first children’s book in print and I have genuinely debated doing this myself). In addition to literature many people post videos and comments that do not need to be monitored. This has completely changed the way stories can be told which has negatives and positives in my opinion. One of the positives is that it gives many more people who otherwise would not have the ability to tell their stories a platform that does not discriminate (although people can get backlash from other internet users), it also makes written literature more widely spread because there is not a limit to how many times it can be read whereas in a library they might only carry a few copies. One of the negatives that I see is that with the ability for anyone to publish what they want comes with the ability for people to spread hate content and false content.

With people having the ability to read literature online has come with many good components that can make a students life much easier. One of these being that scholarly articles published on the internet can now have interactive components such as hyperlinks, diagrams and other beneficial learning tools. I think that hypertext can create a much more dynamic storyline. By this I mean that when reading an article (or a blog much like ours) you can get more information than just what the person who is writing is putting down. It makes the widespread of information, whether that information is true or false, much easier for people to gain access and to find more relevant material related to what they are searching for. I think that online publishing is making literature more easily accessible for readers, I know that I personally use my kindle a lot more than I buy books (even for many textbooks) which not only helps save trees but also makes it so that I can bring multiple books with me without the hassle and weight of multiple.

In my opinion the stories being told through the internet and hyperlinks are more beneficial. I think it gives more people a voice that otherwise would not have one and makes information more accessible.

Works Cited:

Breure, Leen, et al. “Rich Internet Publications: ‘Show What You Tell.’” Journal of Digital Information, journals.tdl.org/jodi/index.php/jodi/article/view/1606.

Watson, Joel. “How Publishing Has Changed in the Digital Era?” Hot Topics, 24 Jan. 2017, www.hottopics.ht/19881/how-publishing-has-changed/.